Most horses graze in cow pastures and are fed hay or silage from those pastures. Horses find this grass very palatable, but it is actually far too high in energy (fructan) and contains too little effective fibre for them. This may make a horse sick, often leading to complaints such as laminitis or tying up. It’s for good reason that there is horse...

A low fructan concentration in grass reduces the risk of laminitis. Fructan is a carbohydrate (a type of sugar) that is produced by grass plants under the influence of sunlight. Grass plants produce particularly large amounts of fructan when nights are cold and sunlight is intense.